Disney has failed to make any inroads with conservative Americans who turned on the entertainment industry giant over its woke politics, according to results from a new Rasmussen Reports survey previewed exclusively by The Daily Wire.
Just over 60% of Republicans have an unfavorable opinion of Disney, including 35% who say they have a “very unfavorable” opinion, the survey conducted by Rasmussen in late September found. The results are starkly divided by political identity. While among Republicans only 32% have a favorable view and 61% have an unfavorable view, for Democrats the results are almost exactly the opposite — 61% of Democrats view Disney favorably and just 29% unfavorably.
The polling indicates that Disney’s woke politics have a real-time impact on its standing popularity. A March 2022 poll conducted as Disney was in the middle of a high-profile fight with Florida Governor Ron DeSantis found the company in a similarly poor position — Republicans viewed Disney by a nearly identical margin, with 29% favorable and 64% unfavorable. The results for Democrats — 58% favorable and 29% unfavorable — also closely mirror what was found in last week’s survey. That poll was conducted just days after then-CEO Bob Chapek publicly chastised DeSantis for targeting the LGBTQ community.
Video also emerged that month of a producer confessing that she pushes a “not-at-all secret gay agenda” through Disney content, “adding queerness” to its children’s programming.
Disney’s best polling performance, on the other hand, came earlier this year in March, when only 54% of Republicans viewed it unfavorably. That poll was conducted after Chapek was replaced at the helm of Disney by its former CEO, Bob Iger, who pledged to “quiet things down” on the political front.
But Iger has failed to steer Disney clear of politics. Disney embroiled itself in viral controversy in August over comments made by the lead actress in its remake of “Snow White,” Rachel Zegler, who called the classic love story “extremely dated” and labeled Snow White’s prince “a guy who literally stalks her. Weird. Weird.”
“I’m if gonna stand there 18 hours in a dress of an iconic Disney princess, I deserve to be paid for every hour that it’s streamed online.”
The new Snow White is the most insufferable woman I’ve ever seen pic.twitter.com/U1swu4roRl
— End Wokeness (@EndWokeness) August 2, 2023
“She’s not going to be saved by the prince and she’s not going to be dreaming about true love,” the actress said, suggesting that it pained her to have to wear the “dress of an iconic Disney princess.”
Disney was also highlighted this week by GLAAD, the Gay & Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation, for including LGBTQ content into a whopping 41% of its films in 2022, making it the second most “LGBTQ-inclusive” studio, behind only Netflix. It received its best rating ever from GLAAD, which rates studios annually, and was also praised by GLAAD’s CEO for its decision to cut off all political donations in Florida over its fight with DeSantis.Analysts have estimated that Disney’s stature with conservative audiences may have cost the company nearly $1 billion, with its major theatrical releases underperforming at the box office.
A Gallup poll released this week found that nearly 60% of Americans think companies should avoid politics, up from 52% last year. Only 37% of Americans think businesses should take a public stance on “LGBTQ+ issues,” the poll found.
The company’s embrace of radical politics has been in the works for years. In 2019, Disney executives threatened to boycott the state of Georgia if it passed legislation restricting abortions. In the past several years the company has also signed a partnership with Black Lives Matter hero Colin Kaepernick, fired actress Gina Carano over conservative social media posts, and infused liberalism into countless classic cartoons, including an “exclusively gay moment” into the remake of “Beauty and the Beast.”
(Disclosure: The Daily Wire has announced plans for kids’ entertainment content.)